The bad news is that dress I ordered last week, which I was so excited about, was out of stock. They didn't even warn me; the package just arrived with the sweater and "sold out" written next to the dress on the packing slip. What a bummer!
On the bright side, that means I had some extra money. Which was burning a metaphorical hole in my pocket, since in my mental balance sheet I had already spent it. Well the Plant Delights open house took care of that.
A couple of months ago Georg and I went to their summer open house with Christa and Lisa B. We had a great time browsing, but didn't buy anything because I don't like to plant in high summer. We had planned to go back to their fall open house and shop. We almost missed it, too: I just happened to be thinking about it and checked their website last night.
Luckily we took lots of photos at our last visit, and we were careful to photograph the tags as well as the plants. Last night we reviewed our photos and made a list of everything we were interested in. That was really helpful, since many of the plants that we photographed in glorious bloom in summer were bloomed out, or even going dormant, by now.
So let's see, what did we buy:
- An alstroemeria that's supposedly more heat tolerant and less invasive than the species is known for.
- Two agapanthus (lilies of the nile), one white and one deep blue.
- Florida Chocolate Flower, a low yellow flower that really does smell strongly of chocolate.
- An amsonia (blue star), which I'm very excited about because we need more flowers in spring.
- A sedum called Frosty Morn which grows like Autumn Joy but has white flowers and variegated foliage.
- A lovely little blue ground cover called Starry Eyes Nierembergia that thrives, they say, in good drainage and baking full sun. What a coincidence, that's what we have!
- Another flower for dry, sunny sites: Prairie Fire Catchfly (silene regia). I'm hoping to use this in place of the pineapple sage, which grew big and bushy but never bloomed all summer.
- A dwarf beautyberry. We actually got this not from Plant Delights but from another vendor, a woman who runs a small nursery in Garner. She told me she specializes in unusual small trees, daylilies and Christmas trees, and Plant Delights was kind enough to let her set up in their lot during their open house.
I didn't see her last time; maybe she only comes on Saturdays? Anyway I had a really good conversation with her. We talked about the Raleigh farmer's market, and she told me that many of the vendors there are major nurseries dumping overstock at liquidation prices, who depress the market for everyone else. I mentioned the three vendors I like -- Archer Farms, Messenbrinks, and Bramble Woods -- and she told me those three are all small independant growers, and she's friends with the folks who own Archer Farms. You can tell just by walking around that those three are a class apart from the typical plant sellers. (I would also put EarthWorks and JB Herb Farms into that better group, but I don't buy from them as often just because I don't need as much of their stock.) But it was nice to hear confirmation from someone who knows the local business. She goes to the farmer's market but only to sell Christmas trees in December.
She had some beautiful trees; unfortunately we just aren't in the market for trees right now. I was glad we could buy the beautyberry from her. I've been wanting a beautyberry for a long time: the purple berries provide nice color in winter, and they're a good food source for birds. But the ones at the regular nurseries are always too big for us. This dwarf one, at 3' by 3', is just what we need.
Even with as much as I bought, there was much more I admired, and might have bought if my budget had been higher. I took lots more photos and will be looking forward to the spring open house.
We had fun food adventures on the way home from Plant Delights, but I think I'll save that for another post.
Leave a comment